Ten Summoner's Tales
}} | rev2 = Chicago Tribune | rev2score = | rev3 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music | rev3score = | rev4 = Entertainment Weekly | rev4Score = A | rev5 = Los Angeles Times | rev5score = | rev6 = Rolling Stone | rev6Score = | rev7 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide | rev7Score = }} Ten Summoner's Tales is the fourth solo studio album by the English rock musician Sting. The title is a combined pun of his family name, Sumner, and a character in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the summoner. Released in 1993, it explores themes of love and morality in a noticeably upbeat mood compared to his previous release, the introspective The Soul Cages released in 1991 after the loss of both his parents in the 1980s. This album contains two US hits; "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" reached No. 17 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and "Fields of Gold" reached No. 23. Ten Summoner's Tales was shortlisted for the 1993 Mercury Prize. In 1994, it was nominated for six Grammy awards including Album of the Year (losing to Whitney Houston‘s The Bodyguard), winning Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance ("If I Ever Lose My Faith in You") and Best Long Form Music Video, while "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" was also nominated for Record and Song of the Year. A laser disc and VHS of the album were released, containing live performances of all songs on the album at Lake House. A promotional disc was made where Sting discusses some of the songs on the album. There is also a live album produced during the Ten Summoner's Tales era titled Meadowlands of Gold, which contains 13 tracks performed at the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The songs consist of tracks from the album, and a few Police songs and a cover of The Beatles' "A Day in the Life". Background The album was recorded at Lake House, Wiltshire, mixed at The Townhouse Studio, London and mastered at Masterdisk, New York. The cover of the album was photographed at Wardour Old Castle in Wiltshire, featuring Hrímnir, an Icelandic horse Sting owned for a period. A long form "performance" video of the entire album was filmed at Sting's Lake House property. The audio used is partly from the album, but partly recorded as played by the band during the filming. This film was released in conjunction with the album. The video went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Video in 1994 and was directed by Doug Nichol and produced by Julie Fong. On 11 August 1994, a compact disc of Ten Summoner's Tales became the first item ever securely purchased over the Internet, for $12.48 plus shipping. There was also an interview disc released for the album, in which Sting talks about all tracks on the album. The second track on the album, Love Is Stronger Than Justice (The Munificent Seven), is titled after Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven. According to the interview disc, the idea came to Sting when he wanted to write a song in the 7/4 time signature. The song Seven Days is also noted for Vinnie Colaiuta's sophisticated playing in the 5/4 time signature. The international-exclusive track "Everybody Laughed But You" was excluded from Canadian and American album releases. However, US singles from the album include the song, and a version of the song with different lyrics titled "January Stars". The singles for Ten Summoner's Tales also give credit to Fernandes Guitars, as Dominic Miller plays a Fernandes P-Project Acoustic Electric Nylon guitar throughout the album. 1998 re-release Ten Summoner's Tales was remastered and re-released in 1998. The re-release CD includes a bonus video track of "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You". It features the song "Everybody Laughed But You", which was excluded from the original 1993 release in the US and Canada. The song did appear on the original release in the UK, Europe, Japan and other territories, and the "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" single. The instrumental track for "Everybody Laughed But You" was also used with an alternate lyric and released as "January Stars" on the "Seven Days" and "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" singles. Track listing All songs written by Sting except where noted. French bonus disc – five live recordings (later released as a promotional disc called Five Live) #"All This Time" #"Roxanne" #"The Soul Cages" #"Walking on the Moon" #"Fortress Around Your Heart" B-sides #"January Stars" #"Everybody Laughed but You" #"Mad About You" (Live) #"Ain't No Sunshine" (Live) #"Every Breath You Take" (Live) #"Message in a Bottle" (Live) #"Tea in the Sahara" (Live) #"Walking on the Moon" (Live) #"King of Pain" (Live) #"Purple Haze" (Live) #"Fortress Around Your Heart" (Live) #"Roxanne" (Live) #"Ne me quitte pas" (Live) #"All This Time" (Live) #"Island of Souls" (Live) #"The Wild Wild Sea" (Live) #"We Work The Black Seam (1993 Version)" (US single) Personnel *Sting: vocals, bass guitar, double bass, harmonica, saxophone *Dominic Miller: guitar *Vinnie Colaiuta: drums *David Sancious: keyboards *Larry Adler, Brendan Power: harmonica *John Barclay, Guy Barker: trumpet *Sian Bell: cello *James Boyd: viola *Richard Edwards: trombone *Simon Fischer, Kathryn Greeley: violin *David Foxxe: narration (devil's voice on "Saint Augustine in Hell") *Paul Franklin: pedal steel guitar *Dave Heath: flute *Kathryn Tickell: Northumbrian smallpipes, fiddle *Mark Nightingale: trombone *David Sanborn: saxophone Production *Produced by Sting and Hugh Padgham *Engineered by Hugh Padgham *Assistant engineer, mix assistant: Pete Lewis *Mixed by David Tickle and Hugh Padgham *Mastered by Bob Ludwig Use in media The backing track of "Shape of My Heart" was used, in a slightly altered way, by rapper Nas on his song "The Message" on the 1996 album It Was Written. In the later 1990s and the 2000s, it became a popular sample in R&B and hip hop songs, possibly inspired by Nas' usage. It has been sampled or interpolated in the following: * "Take Him Back" by Monica from the 1998 album The Boy Is Mine * "Release Me" by Blaque from the 1999 album Blaque * "Never Let Go" by Hikaru Utada from the 1999 album First Love (re-recorded instrumental) * "Emotional" by Carl Thomas from the 2000 album Emotional * "Ways of the World" by Lil' Zane from the 2000 album Young World: The Future * Some live renditions of the 2001 song "Je Moest Waarschijnlijk Gaan" by Brainpower * "Rise & Fall" by Craig David from the 2002 album Slicker Than Your Average (re-recorded instrumentals, and chorus sung, with new lyrics, by Sting) * "Shape" by the Sugababes from the 2002 album Angels with Dirty Faces (included the original chorus vocals as well as the song's B-section) * "Ways to Avoid the Sun" by Rain (2003) has a similar melody, which was probably inspired by this song. * "I Love You" by Kim Hyung Sup (2005) from the original soundtrack of the South Korean TV series Sassy Girl Chun-hyang has a similar melody. * "I Crave You" by Shontelle from the 2008 album Shontelligence * "For My Soldiers" by Pastor Troy from the 2008 album Attitude Adjuster (included some of the song's original chorus) * "Lucid Dreams" by Juice Wrld from the 2018 album Goodbye & Good Riddance The song "Shape of My Heart" been covered by several artists: * Ann-Margret on the soundtrack to the 1996 TV movie Blue Rodeo * Lee Ritenour, featuring Steve Lukather and Andy McKee, on the 2010 album 6 String Theory * Vybz Kartel The song "Fields of Gold" has also been covered by several artists: *Eva Cassidy on the 1996 album Live at Blues Alley *Mary Black on the 1999 album Speaking with the Angel *I Muvrini in 2000, the English-Corsican version "Terre d'Oru", featuring Sting himself *CJ Crew on the 2002 eurodance compilation Dancemania Speed 9 *Mary Wilson on her 2007 album Up Close: Live from San Francisco *Jay and Abby Michaels – The Harper and The Minstrel (arranged for Celtic Harp and Female Vocal) from their 2008 album For A Moment *Fourplay on their 2004 album Journey *Celtic Woman soloist, Lisa Kelly, on their new Songs From the Heart special on PBS *Will Martin on the 2010 album Inspirations Soundtrack appearances A different version of "It's Probably Me", featuring Eric Clapton, was featured in the opening titles of Lethal Weapon 3. This version is available as a single. The song "Shape of My Heart" was featured in the end credits of the 1994 French thriller Léon: The Professional,http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2845 replacing Éric Serra's "The Experience of Love" (a track that Serra eventually used in his 1995 soundtrack for the James Bond film GoldenEye). In 2011, "Shape of My Heart" was used to conclude the final episode of the seventh series of the British television drama series Hustle. Accolades Grammy Awards |- | style="width:35px; text-align:center;" rowspan="6"|1994 ||rowspan=3| Ten Summoner's Tales || Album of the Year || |- |Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical || |- |Best Music Video, Long Form || |- |rowspan=3|"If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" || Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male || |- | Record of the Year || |- | Song of the Year || Brit Awards |- | width="35" align="center" rowspan="3"|1994 ||''Ten Summoner's Tales'' || Best British Album || |- | Sting (performer) || Best British Male Artist || |- | "Fields of Gold" || Best British Video || Mercury Prize |- | width="35" align="center"|1993 || Ten Summoner's Tales || Mercury Music Prize || |- Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Singles Certifications }} }} }} }} }} References *Stingoop.com Ten Summoner's Tales Release Details *sting.com Ten Summoner's Tales Release Details on Sting's official website Category:Sting (musician) albums Category:1993 albums Category:Albums produced by Hugh Padgham Category:A&M Records albums Category:Jazz fusion albums by English artists Category:Albums recorded in a home studio